Free Web NovelChapter 120: Chapter 38: The Time Loop’s Trigger Condition
Jiang Yang:
"Based on what happened in the last loop, have you noticed something?
"What’s the trigger point for Longshu Temple’s time reset? What starts the next loop?"
Gao Tian:
"The end of the day?"
The moment the words left his mouth, he noticed the flaw in his logic.
Had he actually seen the day end before being sent back to dusk?
No, that wasn’t it. Everyone alive in Longshu Temple had died. No one had witnessed the end of that day.
He was the last one to die. It was a little after nine o’clock, still a while before the day was over.
When Wang Wenbo died, it didn’t trigger the time loop.
Neither did Lan Chu.
Neither did Jiang Yang.
The starving ghosts in the Great Buddha had long since become ghosts; they didn’t count as people at all.
The death of the last living person, Gao Tian, marked the end of the day. The next day would then begin, with everyone returning to their original places.
Gao Tian had a pretty good idea of what Jiang Yang was about to say.
If Jiang Yang’s theory was correct, this could be the key to breaking Longshu Temple’s endless loop.
Jiang Yang continued along his line of thought:
"There’s a possibility the starving ghosts in the Great Buddha weren’t lying to you.
"Their master really is coming tonight.
"The reason you think the master never came is because we were all dead before he arrived. Your death triggered the time loop. You died too early to meet him.
"To put it more simply...
"We die at nine o’clock. The master of Longshu Temple arrives at ten o’clock.
"Only by surviving past nine can we enter that new time and meet the old Monk at ten.
"But every time nine o’clock hits, we hear that terrifying bear roar, and everyone dies. Then time reverts to five or six in the afternoon.
"We’re just one hour short of the old Monk’s appearance. But that one hour is like a chasm we can never cross."
Wang Wenbo looked up and asked:
"If your hypothesis is correct, then there’s still a contradiction that can’t be explained.
"May I ask?"
Jiang Yang:
"Of course."
Wang Wenbo:
"We can never get past nine o’clock to survive until ten.
"Why couldn’t the Monks in the temple cross that point either?
"If they did get past nine and met the old Monk at ten, why would they enter the next loop?"
The answer to that question was simple.
Jiang Yang:
"I’ve already explained the reason.
"The time reset only happens when all living people in Longshu Temple die.
"Before we came to Longshu Temple, the living people in the temple were those Monks.
"Their deaths used to be able to trigger the time loop.
"Used to."
Then,
"On that day, nobody knows what happened. Early in the morning, the temple’s head master seemed to realize something. He told them to wait in the temple while he went out to investigate.
"At nine o’clock that night, the Monks heard that terrifying bear roar, and all the Monks hiding inside the Great Buddha died.
"They entered the next loop with a single obsession: the conviction that their master would definitely return.
"After countless loops—years, decades, centuries—their bodies began to change. Eventually, they died for good and became starving ghosts.
"But even as ghosts, they are still forced to loop endlessly in Longshu Temple, unable to break free."
Wang Wenbo:
"As living people, they would die in the temple from the bear roar at nine.
"After they became ghosts, why are they still unable to get past nine o’clock?
"Aren’t ghosts supposed to be immortal?"
Jiang Yang:
"They no longer have the status of living people, so they’ve lost the ability to ’die and restart time’.
"These Monks are now part of the supernatural place itself.
"Only we outsiders, new to Longshu Temple, can determine the reset point for the temple."
So, no one had ever survived until ten o’clock in Longshu Temple.
Neither the original Monks of the temple nor the newly arrived Gao Tian.
Of course, without the bug-like exploit of Gao Tian’s Ghost Card, Jiang Yang would have likely become a part of Longshu Temple himself after countless time loops, just like the Monks in the Great Buddha, turning into a new rule of death.
Future investigators in Longshu Temple would encounter a "four-person team" also there to investigate—tormented spirits, obsessively repeating their mission to complete the green text quest.
The main objective of this mission was becoming very clear.
Wang Wenbo:
"If all the above assumptions are correct...
"Then our mission is to survive until the temple master returns. Only then can we break free from the time loop and enter the next part of the story."
As for surviving past nine, dodging the temple’s other rules of death was relatively easy. But for that final bear roar, they had no perfect solution yet.
Regardless, Gao Tian decided to enter the temple first and get the Transparent Coffin out. This would prevent Wang Wenbo’s fated death.
The Transparent Coffin could still be moved while it was empty.
After swallowing Wang Wenbo and becoming soaked with blood, its weight would be beyond human strength to move.
Gao Tian’s gaze fell on Lan Chu:
"I’ll have to trouble you, Lady Lan Chu. Come into Longshu Temple with me. The two of us will carry the coffin out.
"Remember, we’re only going to move the Transparent Coffin. Don’t touch anything else in the temple. Especially not the Great Buddha with the black hole in its back."
This woman was quite strong. Back in Mirror Alley, she had chained the Mirror Ghost with a dog leash and moved without being hindered in the slightest.
Lan Chu had no objections. She was rather interested in the place where she had died in the last loop.
With Jiang Yang and Wang Wenbo’s help, they gathered a few round logs from nearby. They would place them under the heavy Transparent Coffin to reduce friction.
「Ten minutes later.」
Gao Tian pushed the coffin from behind while Lan Chu pulled from the front. Using the logs underneath as rollers, they managed to get the Transparent Coffin out of the temple.
After dealing with the paranormal item that was certain to kill Wang Wenbo, the four members of the team re-entered the temple.
CAW, CAW, CAW.
The crows in the trees shrieked mournfully the moment they saw Gao Tian return, flying from one tree to another and then back again. For a moment, it was utter chaos.
Jiang Yang turned and asked,
"Were these crows this active in the last loop?"
Gao Tian watched the hyperactive crows darting about in the sky, lost in thought:
"No.
"In the last loop, these crows were quiet. You could barely notice them."
As he passed a Blood Leaf Tree, he caught a glimpse of a dead crow lying at the base of the trunk. Its wings were stiff; it was as dead as could be.
Gao Tian suddenly stopped in his tracks:
"Count how many crows are in the sky."
1, 2, 3, 4... a total of 6 crows.
The others quickly finished counting the crows.
"What is it? Did you notice something else?"
Gao Tian was silent for a moment, unsure if he should say it:
"The green text quest requires us to survive in Longshu Temple for seven days, right?"
Jiang Yang:
"That’s right."
Gao Tian:
"The ’7 days’ might be a metaphor.
"We went through one full team wipe, which counts as one day spent in Longshu Temple.
"There are six crows in the sky and one dead one on the ground. There were originally 7 crows here.
"In the last loop, I didn’t see a crow’s corpse.
"Because we were wiped out once, one of the 7 crows also died."
He didn’t have to say what came next; everyone understood what it probably meant.
Six crows meant they could restart six more times, "surviving" for six more "days" in Longshu Temple.
What would happen if they died six more times?
No one knew.
Perhaps, just like the Monks in the Great Buddha, they would become a permanent part of Longshu Temple.
Actually, with the ability to retain memories, six days was a rather generous amount of time to solve the mystery of Longshu Temple.
It was all thanks to Gao Tian, their human cheat code. Even if the team was wiped out, he could carry the experience and lessons learned into the next "day."
Jiang Yang turned to look at the dilapidated Great Buddha sitting in the center of the main hall:
"Those starving ghost Monks you mentioned are inside that Great Buddha’s belly, right?
"Right now, the bear roar at nine, and the master who’s supposed to return... the clues probably all point to these ghosts.
"Is there a way to talk to them without triggering their rule of death?"
Gao Tian shook his head:
"I’m afraid not.
"You can only see them at the bottom by going through that black hole.
"But if you get too close, the starving ghosts hiding inside will devour you in an instant, not even leaving a single bone behind."
As he spoke, Gao Tian took a few steps closer to the main hall and casually tossed a stone at the Great Buddha.
DONG DONG.
It made a hollow sound.
The Great Buddha’s shell was quite thin.
’No wonder such a large black hole appeared in its back.’
Wang Wenbo thought for a moment and said tentatively:
"We could just break open the front of the Great Buddha. If the starving ghosts are hiding inside, they’ll have nowhere to run and will have to face us.
"Jiang Yang, you first shoot a few holes in it with your pistol. Then I’ll find a thick log and, based on the stress points, easily punch through the Great Buddha’s belly."
To be honest, Gao Tian was quite curious about what the inside of the Great Buddha’s belly was actually like.
Why couldn’t people on the outside detect the "people" inside before the starving ghosts revealed themselves?
Still, he remained cautious:
"Even if these starving ghosts perceive themselves as human, they are ultimately still vengeful spirits.
"If we break open the Great Buddha’s belly, what if the starving ghosts lose control and walk right out of the main hall? We’d be in danger then."
Wang Wenbo reminded him:
"You said before that the starving ghost Monks are honoring their promise to their master. They are bound to stay inside the Great Buddha and won’t leave.
"Besides, if we just waste time here, we won’t find any other clues, and soon it’ll be nine o’clock. We’ll all die again, just like in the last loop.
"It’s a risk worth taking. Don’t you think?"
’That makes sense.’
Gao Tian:
"Wait a moment.
"Let me first test if the Mirror Ghost’s power is working properly. Then we’ll smash open the Great Buddha’s belly."
